An eight-year-old girl named Xiao Mei has been suffering from stomach pain for almost a year, and when she is hungry, the pain gets even worse. According to China Press, her stomach pain was because her mother had passed on her bacteria by blowing on her daughter’s food!
The girl from Hangzhou, China, has just entered primary school, but she is already 155cm tall and weighs 65kg! She likes to eat a lot of food, especially meat, but because she is still growing, her parents did not control her food intake. However, in the past year, she began having stomach aches that were so painful that she found it hard to sleep at night. Her parents thought that she was just hungry and upset, so they ignored her cries.
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Recently, the girl and her family went to Russia for a vacation. During this time, Xiao Mei was still suffering from the pain and even started breaking out in cold sweat all over her body. Her parents became anxious and immediately returned to China, taking her to a hospital there.
After examining Xiao Mei and taking note of her symptoms, the doctor asked if her family had any history of stomach disease, particularly Helicobacter Pylori infection – a kind of disease where bacteria enters your body, lives in your digestive tract and causes ulcers in the lining of your stomach or the upper part of your small intestine, according to Web MD.
Her mother was surprised at that question as she thought a young child could not be infected with that disease. At this point, she was suddenly reminded of a time when she herself had been infected with Helicobacter Pylor, but was afraid of the follow-up examination and kept on postponing her treatment.
Because the mother wasn’t treated for the stomach disease, she had passed on the bacteria to Xiao Mei when she blew on the girl’s food and used her chopsticks to feed her daughter.
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After further examination, the doctor confirmed that Xiao Mei was infected with Helicobacter Pylori and found a small ulcer in her duodenum through a gastroscope.
When Xiao Mei’s mother heard of her daughter’s diagnosis, she regretted not getting treated when she was infected with the disease and could not believe that she was the cause of her daughter’s abdominal pain.
It has been reported that once a person is infected with Helicobacter Pylori, it is uncommon for the disease to be eradicated naturally. Symptoms often include abdominal discomfort, nausea, vomiting, acid reflux, and other gastrointestinal symptoms.
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Helicobacter Pylori is said to be highly contagious, as one infected person is enough to infect a whole family. The disease is “commonly transmitted person-to-person by saliva. The bacteria can also be spread by fecal contamination of food or water,” according to The University of Arizona.
Oh no! Hopefully, the doctors will be able to treat Xiao Mei’s stomach ulcer and that her mother too will get her treatment.
Also read: 1yo Girl Chokes on Tiny Object, Mother Sucks It Out With Own Mouth & Suffocates on It Instead
